Željana Zovko

Željana Zovko (born 25 March 1970) is a Bosnian and Croatian diplomat and politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Croatia since 2016.

[2] In 2012, Zovko was appointed foreign affairs advisor to Vjekoslav Bevanda, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving in this role until March 2015.

[3] Despite the conflict of interest due to her dual allegiance as a Bosnian diplomat, in May 2014 Zovko contested the 2014 European Parliament election in Croatia on the list of the "Patriotic coalition" of the Croatian Democratic Union.

She was also a member in the Committee on Culture and Education and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence and Vice-Chair of the parliamentary delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (DSEE).

[10] Zovko claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IZ BiH) interfered in the 2018 Bosnian general election to support Željko Komšić over her party colleague Dragan Čović.

Komšić dismissed Zovko’s claims as "blatant lies and Islamophobia", while the IZ BiH condemned them as a "malicious campaign against the Islamic Community without any proof".

[11] On August 28, 2019, on Twitter, Zovko commemorated the 26th anniversary of the establishment of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, a self-proclaimed quasi-state, but deleted the post two days later following media backlash.